UAW claim of a Ford double standard could snarl auto talks
A grievance gambit that the UAW is running at Ford Motor Co. during the home stretch of national contract negotiations is a risky one for UAW President Bob King.
If this blows up in his face it could cost Ford a strike by hourly workers and damage King’s initiative to organize the U.S. assembly plants of German and Asian automakers.
To recap: In early 2010, the UAW filed a grievance against Ford, signed by 35,000hourly workers, alleging that the carmaker acted improperly when it restored merit pay and tuition reimbursement to salaried workers without doing the same for UAW-represented workers.
The grievance had been grinding away in the administrative process. But the UAW pushed it into the public domain a few weeks ago by taking it to arbitration. An arbitration hearing is scheduled for Sept. 15, the day after the current four-year contracts expire between the UAW and Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.
The claim is of dubious merit. Ford management has always retained the right to run the business as it pleases. That’s true regardless of vague language in UAW contracts in 2007 and again in the 2009 modifications that the company would keep the union appraised of efforts to ensure “equity of sacrifice” between company stakeholders.
Set that aside. Why is King making a big deal about it now? Neither the union nor Ford are commenting.
But Gary Walkowicz, a UAW bargaining committeeman at the Ford Rouge assembly plant in suburban Detroit, said he expects King to settle the grievance as part of contract negotiations to make Ford’s offer to workers look more generous than it really is.
Walkowicz reasons that negotiations will not produce the pay raise and cost-of-living adjustment restoration that workers want. So the union will try to sweeten profit-sharing and a performance bonus plan with some monetary resolution of the grievance.
King desperately wants to avoid a strike at Ford that would really hurt a collaborative image that the union has tried to portray to the transplants.
Uaw Hourly Wage - News
To recap: In early 2010, the UAW filed a grievance against Ford, signed by 35000hourly workers, alleging that the carmaker acted improperly when it restored merit pay and tuition reimbursement to salaried workers without doing the same for
New employees will work a night shift and would not be eligible to earn the higher, $28 hourly UAW wage for at least several years, union and company officials predict. Still, the hope of something better drew Warren to get tested in math, reading,
Meanwhile, Ford and the UAW have yet to settle a grievance signed by 35000 of Ford's 40600 hourly workers. That dispute began in 2010 when Ford reinstated merit pay raises and 401(k) matches for salaried workers, but not hourly workers.
Negotiations in Cheektowaga broke down July 31 when UAW Local 846 members voted 98% to reject what American Axle said was its last, best and final proposal. Mr. Son said the company needed a commitment by the union to maintain the hourly work wage at
The UAW states that American Axle seeks concessions in hourly wages and benefits in the new contract. "This is an indication that hard-working people are sick of constantly helping companies through concessions and back to profitability and companies
GM Negotiating With UAW Over Wages | GM Authority
General Motors are currently deep in discussion with representatives from the United Auto Workers drawing up new terms for their laborers. One of the biggest issues that’s been one of heated debate happens to be the current two-tier wage system .
The current setup — while it helps make the automaker more efficient and competitive in production costs — has been found to be discouraging to those who find themselves working in the second-tier pay bracket, which is half the amount of hourly pay the first-tier workers enjoy.
GM North America President Mark Ruess, while not giving any specifics, said that his company and the UAW are “pursuing common hourly and salary quality rewards for excellence in our negotiations,” in a report from The Detroit News. Meanwhile, second-tier workers are seemingly fed up with hearing about the financial advantage their fellow first-tier workers enjoy.
Uaw Hourly Wage - Bookshelf
UAW, forty years of struggle
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A theoretical and empirical examination of wage differentials findsthat traditional theories of competition do not explain why workers with identical skills are ...Help Guide Directory
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UAW Workers Really Do Make $71 Per Hour | Chris Berry On The Net
There has been a great deal of misinformation floating around about the hourly wages paid to UAW members by GM, Ford and Chrysler. The most common figure cited